Its many people dream to run the streets of london (including my own). I yet again have been turned down and i was so up set as really wanted to do it for the charity that helps me with my child by giving me rest bite even if its a couple of hours. I usually run in this time to de stress.
I believe to make things fair you should only be offered a ballot place every 5 years, especially as scrapped the 6th year deffo in. In the mean time if people want to run then they should do it for charity. People who say got in 1,2,3 years on a trot and likes of thousands of others who getting up set with rejection. Once every 5 years is not being greedy and give the oppotunity to others who may want to do it for personal reasons.
Im sorry but still up set as had my heart set on it but looks like i be having may half term in scotland. All i want to do is say thank-you for all they done for my son and small charitys need funding.
Comments
Don't forget there are other marathons, Yes London is well known there all the same distance, look at one of them instead.
Lisa, if you really want to raise the money for your charity then do it through another marathon. Edinburgh lacks the crowds but a marathon is a marathon no matter where its held. If you want the 'big' event why not do the GNR?
Its 3:50 now!Sorry If that sounded harsh it wasn't meant to be x
I think running london marathon and raising money for your charity are two seperate issues...............if you want to raise money for the charity there a million and one ways of doing that including running other marathons...................
so no need to link that to your own personal desire for running London.........yes you want to do it so either just wait for your lucky time..........or train for aGFA time.
Good luck with both challenges
I live a healthy life style and do not place unreasonable demands upon the health service or my enviroment and choose to run solely for me this year. So what's the problem?
Last year I ran various events for charity including London even though I had a ballot place, as I would not be held to the large ransom demands of charity.
If you want people to run for charity petition the charitys to stop asking for massive sums of money and people such as myself would be happy to do our best, but the sums people are asked to raise are simply offensive in some cases.
This year I will not run for charity through choice and I do not think its appropriate to suggest that everyone should do so. I dare say Paula Radcliff is not running for a charity and im curious to know if you think this is OK or should she be dressed as a womble raising money?
There are many ways to raise money, the marathon is not the only way to do so.
If someone is doing it year in/year out then they must be qualifying.
I can understand why you are upset - I don't think a lot of people realise how low their chances of getting in are and so the rejection magazine can be a bit of a blow. In terms of raising money for your charity - Surely any big event will do - the GNR (as mentioned earlier) has just as much 'fame' as the London marathon and I believe a slightly better chance of getting in.
If you are that interested in running a marathon - just pick another. Simple really.
And that is the real Nell McAndrew in my pic.
Alright it's annoying and difficult to raise that much, but surely it adds to your achievement on the day?
And as the others say, just choose another marathon if u don't want to raise money, 120k people go for the ballot and 35k get in, the chances of getting a place are very slim!
Hi,
I'm still awaiting my magazine so don't know whether I'm or ... However,I am confused by the early ballot entry for those of us who were someway between 0 and 5 (and then a guarenteed entry)...
If the 35k get in and 125k apply is about right (I don't know how many charity places, corporate place, celebs etc there are) then its about 1 in 4, and is 1 in 4 every year - and it doesn't roll over so you can get 4 in a row, or 4
I'm sure there's someone out there who can explain the maths, but I fear the simple answer is - Some people are just lucky!
Paul
http://walkingforheartkids.blogspot.com/2011/09/schrondingers-magazine-london-marathon.html
nothing wrong with charity running.................it adds another dimension to the marathon and gives another avenue for people who want to enter and are willing to put in a lot of hard work to raise the cash.........they know the amount they have to raise beforehand just like people who want automatic qualification have to race to get GFA...............
just another avenue and loads of great charities get money to help them continue the marvellous work they do............
Only problems occur when people get a charity place and underestimate the hard work involved in fund raising and don't put the significant number of hours required...which to me is harder than the run training itself
As some have already touched on there are 35,000 places of which a percentage are set aside for ballot places. A large large proportion go to Elite, Championship, GFA and club runners who manage to obtain a club place, all of whom deserve their place which has been earned by hard training. The GFA entry is actually very doable for many now as the times have been relaxed in the last two years. If you're a male and really need to run London that much you can get a garanteed 2 year entry by running under 3:10 (the other qualifying times are easy to find on the VLM site). On the other hand, if you really want to raise money for a charity there are loads of ohter things you can do. Don't blame not getting into VLM on not being able to raise money for your charity.
BOTF/seren nos: dead right.
My OH has had either three or four (can't remember exactly) places through the ballot, out of five or six entries (not consecutive years). I don't think he knows someone useful though!
It is just random - I entered five times and didn't get it via the ballot, but I got my club place (that's another way of getting a place - join a club!) Doing the race showed me that actually, I didn't want to do it again!
I've done other marathons since - they really are just as far, and just as hard, but a lot more enjoyable.
Have run once for charity, twice on club places and assuming I run in April that will be 2 GFA places.
Re wanting to run for charity and the OP, look at Shakespeare, it's a lovely race.